Various state governments had announced free transportation and accommodation, including West Bengal that ran special metro service for candidates.
With no movies to shoot, no meetings to attend and no red carpets to grace, lockdown-afflicted celebrities are pursuing forgotten hobbies or browsing through old photo albums to share warm memories.
Strident Hindutva has not been the Shivraj Singh Chouhan's hallmark in his long tenure as chief minister. What has changed?
Aseem Chhabra watched some great films and some huge disappointments in 2020.
The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, who shot dead 166 people, had confessed to details that should have been enough to hang him, but Pakistan enjoyed his anti-India rhetoric and let him spread his tentacles. A revealing excerpt from Khaled Ahmed's Pakistan's Terror Conundrum.
From Chief Minister EK Palaniswami to Seeman to TTV Dhinakaran to elder brother M K Azhagiri, everyone's favourite target these days seems to the DMK chief Stalin, which is good news in an election year, but that doesn't mean he is going to sweep the polls, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'He was such a diverse poet that he wrote the song M bole toh Master of Munnabhai MBBS and also Yeh Rishta kya kehlata hai of Meenaxi.'
Awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri, Pandit Jasraj also popularised semi-classical music like 'haveli sangeet' and reached out to devotees with his 'bhajans', a particular favourite for his fans being "Om Namo Bhagavate" in praise of Lord Krishna.
We pay homage to Bhanu Athaiya by celebrating her best creations.
'When he came to Bombay, he lived on the streets with his mother.' 'He had to sell whatever little they had in their bags -- their clothes, his toys.' 'When they did not have money, a bakery would sell the bread crumbs fallen on the floor for one paisa in a newspaper.' 'But before eating, they had to take out the rat and cockroach shit from the crumbs.'
'By annoying the Arabs and cozying up to Iran, Pakistan may end up losing Arab economic support, annoying the Americans and increase Shia-Sunni tensions domestically,' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) points out.
Here is a look at some of Aseem Chhabra's favourite memories of 2020 in Hindi cinema, performances by well-known and new actors, special moments in films and shows.
The West Bengal chief minister said no refugee living in the state will be deprived of citizenship. "You have an address, ration card, voter card, driving licence. There is no need to get this new card of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Don't worry, you will always find this didi beside you. Your family is my family. I will not let anybody take away the rights of our people," she asserted.
Beijing's political risks are also escalating because of a renewed wave of public anger in many parts of Balochistan against human rights abuses by Pakistani troops deployed to crush the low-intensity insurgency in the province, the report said.
The opposition parties also alleged that the gangster was killed to protect the UP government.
'Suspect all, fix all.' 'It is this mindset that begins at the very top of an establishment and then trickles down and across,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
The politicisation of ethnic sentiments in the state has coincided with the ascent of the BJP and increased activities of far right Hindu outfits, which organised rallies and other events on religious occasions such as Ram Navami a festival not very popular in West Bengal- unlike states in north India.
'We might have been better prepared to deal with the pandemic had so much time, attention and money not gone into welcoming one of the stupidest men on the planet.'
'I will not say that the AIMIM is a 'B' team of the BJP. But due to the AIMIM, the BJP benefits for sure'
Will the M (Muslims) in the RJD's M+Y move fast swiftly towards the MIM and away from the RJD, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
Sukanya Verma raises a toast (he'd like that very much) to the magnificent Rishi Kapoor and his 25 essential performances.
Shah had on Tuesday attended a party event in Lucknow where he said that the Opposition is spreading rumours about the CAA.
For now, the BJP's strategy for Khushbu seems to be one of denial -- denying the rival Congress in the state and also at the national-level a Muslim voice acceptable to Hindu audiences and TV news-watchers. This is much less than the induction of DMK veterans like Duraiswamy and Selvam, who still have a greater chances of winning assembly seats,, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'We are patriots who love India and the secular ideals it has always upheld.'
Flight PK8303 crashed among houses in the Model Colony residential area on Friday as it approached Karachi airport, killing 97 people, including nine children.
More than 40 artists from four cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune -- gathered in Mumbra, a township near Mumbai. The artists joined women in Mumbra protesting the Citizens (Amendment) Act.
Curated by artist Myna Mukherjee, the art at the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre booth featured paintings as well as songs including Faiz Ahmad Faiz's "Hum Dekhenge", and poetry recitations talking about the love, beauty, tenderness and the strength of women across the country.
The home minister speaking in the Lower House when asked about the detention of leaders in Jammu-Kashmir said that curfew has been withdrawn from all police station limits in Jammu and Kashmir and not a single person died due to police firing.
Aazad reached Shaheen Bagh a day after his bail conditions were relaxed. Addressing a massive gathering, the Dalit leader said the CAA is a 'black law' that is dividing people on religious lines.
'We will comfortably sail through this sea of fire.'
Kaifi's acting credits include "Bazaar", "Umrao Jaan" and Mira Nair's Oscar nominated film "Salaam Bombay!".
'They will talk about secularism, but communalism -- they just won't say there exists such a beast.' 'It's harmful for society to brush it under the carpet.' 'If we talk about secularism, we must talk about communalism.'
Politics in Maharashtra took an unexpected turn after the Shiv Sena walked away from its longtime ally the Bharatiya Janata Party over sharing the chief ministerial post after the assembly results were declared on October 24.
Siva Sankar looks at S P Balasubrahmanyam's fantastic repertoire.
She claimed states were not consulted about it, a charge dismissed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the examination.
If the finance minister's tax proposals have stimulated demand at all, it's for CAs, notes Kanika Datta.
His songs were the anchor, the substratum, if you will, upon which life unfolded day after day, decade after decade -- across villages, towns, cities, and regions. Siva Sankar pays tribute to S P Balasubrahmanyam, the legendary singer who passed into the ages on Friday.
Jamia turned into a battlefield on Sunday as police entered the campus and also used force, following protest against the Act.
It is a tribute to India's democracy, however flawed, that the very same MPs who had harangued her intermittently from Opposition benches now surged towards her, anxiety writ large on their faces. One offered her some homoeopathic tablets, another advised her to stay seated, another grasped her hand wishing her good health... the crowd parted as Prime Minister Narendra Modi strode up to congratulate her. But it was mostly well-wishers from the Opposition and the NDA that kept the finance minister cocooned with good wishes until it was time to leave, reports Aditi Phadnis.
The one-page Urdu posters, which are claimed to be on behalf of Al-Badr Mujahideen, were seen pasted at several places in Mendhar town on Saturday. The posters were immediately seized by police, the officials said.
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